


Stranger

by shipatfirstsight



Series: Anidala Drabbles [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Death, F/M, Padme's thoughts, Reunited lovers, The whole Anakin and Padme are reunited in the Force thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-09 10:05:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5535839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shipatfirstsight/pseuds/shipatfirstsight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes twenty years for Padmé to recognize the man she's looking at as her husband.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> “There are a million ways to lose someone you love.”  
> – Tammara Webber

Padmé goes to Mustafar. She’s afraid, afraid that Obi Wan is telling the truth and her husband has killed younglings. He’s done it before, a dark voice whispers in her mind, but she shoves it away. She understood the Tusken Raiders, maybe, she hopes against all hope, just maybe, if he’s done what Obi Wan says he has done, he has a good reason.

Anakin rushes out to meet her ship, and for a moment he looks so happy; her emotions swell, knowing this happiness is because he loves her. She runs to him, happy just to be in his arms again.

She almost doesn’t want to ask him. She almost wants to let this just be a happy moment for them. Let’s go, she almost says, let’s leave this all behind and just be a family together.

But there’s something darker lurking in his eyes, something that wasn’t there before. She doesn’t need to ask anymore, she knows the truth of what Obi Wan said. Her heart clenches in pain. 

“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for you,” he spits out. What would normally make her feel better, be a testament to their love, kills her a little more. She doesn’t want to be the reason behind any of this; the younglings, the Jedi, the Republic, her husband, her Ani. 

Padmé looks into her husband’s face—the face she thought she knew—and does not recognize who this person is. Tears stream down her face, and she doesn’t try to stop them (Neither does he, and it’s just another dagger in her heart); she’s so tired and she just wants her husband to hold her. 

“We can take over the Empire,” he says next, and his voice is softer. It doesn’t soften the blow of his words. “You and I can rule together, make things the way we want them to be,” and his words sound so earnest. This person knows, knows her doubts about the old political system, and wants to use them against her to tie her to him. 

“Anakin, you’re breaking my heart,” she sobs, but he’s not really her Anakin, is he? Not anymore. He is a stranger in her lover’s body. (I don’t know who this is. What happened to my Ani? she thinks over and over and over). 

Everything they’ve had, their whole history together, feels gone with that realization. Anakin is dead and this person has taken his place. Not dead, not dead, he can’t be gone, she thinks, she wills into the universe. 

Give him back, she almost shouts, but she can’t seem to make her mouth work anymore. She can see the effect her words had on him, and it almost gives her hope that Anakin is still in there somewhere. 

This person is not looking at her anymore, though; he’s looking beyond her. She’s never seen such hate on any person’s face before, and she can’t stand the way it twists him into someone completely unrecognizable.

She turns toward the subject of his gaze, and there’s Obi Wan. She knows what the person in front of her is thinking, that she brought Obi Wan there to kill him, and she wants to curse Obi Wan. Any chance she had of saving Anakin is gone; she can see that it’s gone because the pure hate he had directed at his former friend is being directed at her. There is no love in his face for her anymore.

She can feel it when she can no longer feel air going into her lungs. She knows it’s Anakin’s doing—or the person masquerading as her husband—and still she tries to plead with him.

I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe! She repeats over and over in her mind, hoping he’ll stop, hoping he’ll hear her through their connection in the Force. But he doesn’t stop; he just seems to squeeze harder. Finally, her vision going blurry, she mouths, “I love you.”

As she loses consciousness, she could swear that she feels Anakin’s regret for a moment.

When she wakes up, she knows she’s dying and she doesn’t know how to stop it. She’s never felt such pain before (there’s a vice around her heart), and all she wants is for Anakin to be there and help her through the birth of their child. But Anakin’s not there; Obi Wan is, and she knows that if he’s here, Anakin is probably dead. Her babies—her poor babies—will grow up without either of their parents. She names them the names she and Anakin agreed on instantly—“Luke for a boy,” she had declared and he’d laughed and replied, “Leia for a girl.”

She needs Obi Wan to know what she felt, though; needs him to tell her children that their father wasn’t bad.

“There’s still good in him,” she whispers to Obi Wan with her last breaths. “I know there is still---“ She doesn’t get to finish. 

She dies, but she still sees. Padmé watches as the last Jedi make decisions regarding her children. She sees that Anakin is not dead after all, but she wishes he were when she sees the scars covering his body under the suit. She sees the Emperor twist her husband’s mind.

Use the anger you used when you killed your wife, the Emperor says time and time again, never letting whatever shard of Anakin is left in Vader forget what he has done.

She doesn’t watch Vader that much. It’s too painful to watch and remember and feel responsible. 

Padmé watches her children, constantly. It’s almost like being there to watch them grow up, but she wishes she were alive to actually be there for them. As they get older, she sees her and Anakin’s traits in both her children; she worries for the both of them.

It takes twenty years for her family to find their way to each other, but they do. She wishes Vader could hear her yell at him. 

But then, he does something amazing. Or rather, Anakin does something amazing. He kills the Emperor; he saves their son. She watches him as he dies, watches the resignation on his face. He looks beyond Luke’s shoulder, and she can see the moment he sees her.

His face fills with love, his eyes with joy. Anakin takes his last breath, and his spirit joins hers, youthful again like the last time she saw him before he turned into someone she didn’t know.

“I’m so sorry,” is the first thing he says to her.

Padmé reaches up and cups his cheek in her hand. “You came back to me,” she says with a smile, “I thought I’d lost you.” He leans his head down to her, and she stretches up. They kiss, and its soft and sweet and hesitant, like the first time they kissed.

“It’s good to have you back,” she whispers when their lips part. 

His smile is Anakin's smile, no darkness lurking in his eyes, and she feels her heart start to knit back together.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!


End file.
